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Classical Music as Relics for easy listening

When is classical music art as opposed to easy listening or entertainment? I ask this question because it seems the FM classical music stations almost always claim "for asoothing relaxing time listen to W@#$" I guess this goes hand and hand with the midcult of symphonic fare that the orchestras and the music directors are dishing out. The radio stations play third rate baroque music "to soothe ones nerves on the commute home" (I guess you need something on the rush hour traffic on I-495 in DC) and for the symphonic fare: the same warhorses over and over, relics of dead great composers. Absolutely nothing new. I cannot remember
when the last time I here a modern piece by Part or Schnittke(though he is dead). I only found out Part or Schnittke by reading about them in the New York Times, and
getting a Naxos CD, to hear them. I have to go to Philly to Tower Records to find these composers because neither Borders or B&N have them. No wonder Classical music is dying slowly. Does anybody else have this same kind of frustration or are you just as happy hearing the same recordings over and over? Just asking......
shubertmaniac
flex
292 posts
 
There are LOTS of good modern composers!!! I listen to modern music all the time and love it. I would forget the radio and start with a contemporary music history text as a source for directions in 20th century composition. I've never had any trouble finding cd's when I knew what I was looking for. Try some or all of the following: Luciano Berio, Thomas Ades, John Adams, John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour, Witold Lutoslawski, H. Dutilleaux, H.W. Henze, Henryk Gorecki, John Tavener, Giya Kancheli, E. Rautavaara, John Rutter, Toru Takemitsu, E.S. Tuur, Pierre Boulez, Peter Vasks.
flex
292 posts
 
I generally find the internet to be a much better way to locate classical music, especially modern, than searching locally. The Tower and Amazon URL's are pretty decent, and if you look, you can find a number of British and German internet sources that will have anything you can't find here (e.g. BOL). Also, review mags like Gramophone are great sources of commentary on modern recordings.
flex
292 posts
 
Rats, I left out Gyorgy Ligeti, speaking of chamber music.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
While I basically agree with your list Flex, most of the modern composers you list compose music that is pretty small scale and simplistic in comparison with the masters.

There has been literally hundreds upon hundreds of "classical" composers over the last few centuries. Most have been long forgotten for the same reason.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Hey, DC-area radio pretty well sucks all the way around the dial, not just classical. Only a small number of decent shows on WPFW and WAMU, no really good rock or r&b stations, no college music-oriented stations of any kind, no all-jazz stations since WDCU folded. WRNR's version of the old-HFS "Homegrown Radio" is for the most part hugely disappointing. If you can get 91.5 from Baltimore, it's a better classical station. Or just record Jeff Esworthy's "Music Through The Night" on WETA latenights. Even AM lost "The Music of Your Life" WWDC of yore. Every major city I travel to reminds me that DC is the most boring and impoverished radio town imaginable. I know radio has gone way downhill everywhere, but most cities still manage to retain more regional radio identity than does DC. We're culturally aware here - what did we do to deserve this fate? I usually just listen to NPR and WAMU talk in addition to WTEM sportstalk.
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